Monday, May 17, 2010

Deliver Us From Evil

This movie is a documentary about a rapist priest who savaged dozens if not hundreds of kids with the full knowledge of the Catholic hierarchy and they did nothing but cover up and enable his crimes. What you learn is that this is not simply the case of a few bad apples. This is an institutional problem.

One victim, Ann, was raped from the age of 5 until 12. Her dad had said while she was young "If anyone ever hurt you, I'd kill them." Young Ann asked a friend what would happen if her father killed someone. They said he would go to jail. So Ann out of love for her father would not say anything to anyone.

Father O'Grady, the rapist, got very light punishment due to Catholic string pulling. He served 7 years, then was shipped back to his home country of Ireland when he'd served his sentence. He lives comfortably today. The Church bought him an annuity to help fund his life despite the fact that he was retired from the priesthood. This may have partly been to encourage him to remain silent about the knowledge the Church had since the Church has the ability to de-fund the annuity at any time.

The rape has crushed Ann's parents, who now have little monetary resources because of all of this. Imagine that they paid good money to send their daughter to private school, where she was raped routinely, and they never got a penny back, whereas Father O'Grady gets monthly checks.

Ann and another victim went to the Vatican to deliver a letter expressing the pain they had experienced. They were denied entry to the Vatican. The Vatican did not respond to the letter.

President Bush though continues the tradition of showing how every law has two interpretations. One for the rich and powerful, another for the poor and weak. Molested children are poor and weak. Bush stands with the rich and powerful. He granted the Vatican immunity from molestation charges. The kids will not be getting compensation for the suffering and destruction that has come upon them.

About me

Raised as an evangelical, biblical inerrantist and political right winger I became an atheist and finally left winger later in life. I love to argue since I believe argument is what helped turn my former false beliefs into true ones, and that's been good for me. This blog is kind of a place for me to collect resources that justify my beliefs and also to continue to have arguments that refine and improve my views.